Background:

European tarnished plant bug (Lygus ruulipennis) Strawberry blossom weevil (Anthonomus rubi) Raspberry beetle (Byturus tomentosus)

Softpest

Multitrap

Cause large losses in yield (10 - >80%) and quality of organically grown strawberry and raspberry Objective: By exploiting natural semiochemical mechanisms of sexual and host plant attraction, to develop effective traps for these insect species or repealing them from the field

Softpest

Multitrap Some results:

• •

WP 1 - Chemical analysis of plant volatiles

The same sesquiterpenes identified in both strawberry and raspberry; potential insect pheromone synergists.

Possible insect repelling volatiles identified.

•

WP 2 - Pest insects in strawberry

A. rubi: weevils caught throughout the growing season.

• • L. rugulipennis: later peak catches in Denmark and UK. than in Norway; more generations per year in the south.

• For both higher catches in the crop than in the boundary vegetation.

WP 3 - Pest insects in raspberry

A. rubi: CH: peak new gen. > peak overwintering gen.

NOR: peak overwintering gen. > peak new gen.

• B. tomentosus: Highest catch rates between leaves development and single flower buds • Fewer damaged flowers in plots with traps than control plot. • Trap density: more severe flower damage in plots with a high compared to a low density.

WP 4 - Trap design

Traps with green cross vanes the most effective for trapping both A. rubi and L. rugulipennis.

• A. rubi: attracted to the traps but catch rates appears relatively low. • L. rugulipennis: observed to walk on the cross vanes without falling down.

Softpest

Multitrap Recommendations to soft berry producers:

Pest insects in strawberry

• Mount traps on the ground in the crop. • Use the green cross vane trap without the bee excluder grid to catch both species. • In perennial strawberry crops, traps should stay in the field till end of September to reduce overwinter generation

Pest insects in raspberry

• For

A. rubi

• To catch mount traps on the ground • Mount traps in the crop before spring emergence

B. tomentosus: use

traps with lures containing raspberry volatile and the beetle aggregation pheromone. • Change volatile lures on the traps before the new generation of

A. rubi

appear in the crop.